And Now: The 2026-27 Marquette Men’s Basketball Non-Conference Schedule

Let’s drop the table version in here real quick since I presume not everyone can recognize all the logos mostly because I could not recognize all the logos.

And, because it’s fun, here’s a calendar version of the schedule. I just marked all the game days in green just for the rhythm of the thing:

There are not any unexpected high profile regular season games announced here. We already knew about Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi State, and the pair of Battle 4 Atlantis games. All we were waiting on was finding out how Marquette would fill in around those items on the board. Heck, we weren’t even waiting for every game, as we knew about New Hampshire, too.

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That doesn’t mean there isn’t news in this schedule. The first item is that Marquette is playing a pair of Division 1 exhibition games, the first time that the Golden Eagles have taken advantage of new NCAA rules that allow you to compete in front of fans against other D1 programs in games outside the regular season. Marquette will go on the road to visit Green Bay on October 19th, and then will host Michigan State on October 25th. That game is already listed on GoMarquette.com as a noon Central time start at Fiserv Forum, so yeah, it’s going to be a real thing in front of fans and everything.

The second item is the return of the students-only game at the Al McGuire Center. That one is set for Friday, November 6th, and Detroit Mercy will be the opponent. It would seem that this is officially an every other year event, and I like that it has become a bit of a tradition now.

Okay, let’s do some cursory research on the five opponents that are newly announced here.

Mercyhurst Lakers

2025-26 Record: 17-17, 10-8 NEC
2025-26 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #284
2026-27 BartTorvik.com Projection: #305
All-Time Series: First ever meeting

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Part of the reason this is the first ever meeting with Mercyhurst? It’s also their third season in Division 1. They actually went to the NEC tournament title game last season and they’ve had winning records in conference play in both of their two seasons so far.

Detroit Mercy Titans

2025-26 Record: 17-15, 12-8 Horizon League
2025-26 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #185
2026-27 BartTorvik.com Projection: #233
All-Time Series: Marquette leads, 60-27

The all-time series with Detroit Mercy doesn’t go all the way back to Marquette’s first ever season in 1916-17, but it’s close! The first ever meeting was in February 1922, with MU prevailing 38-22 in Michigan. It was a home-and-home yearly series for a long time, pretty much all the way through Marquette’s time as an independent, year in and year out. That got broken up in the 1980s for whatever reason, and two sides have only met five times since 1982. Four of those were conference games in Marquette’s first two years in a conference when both squads were in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference. The only meeting since then was an 87-45 Marquette victory in November 2006, extending MU’s streak in the series to eight straight wins dating back to 1979.

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Northern Illinois Huskies

2025-26 Record: 9-21, 4-14 MAC
2025-26 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #345
2026-27 BartTorvik.com Projection: #240
All-Time Series: Marquette leads, 8-2

This is an interesting time to be playing Northern Illinois. The Huskies have left the MAC as of July 1st, as they are now playing football in the Mountain West and are otherwise primarily a member of the Horizon League. This will be the third time that Shaka Smart’s Golden Eagles have faced NIU after contests in November of 2021 and 2023. MU has won five straight in the series dating back to 1991.

Chicago State Cougars

2025-26 Record: 7-25, 5-13 NEC
2025-26 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #339
2026-27 BartTorvik.com Projection: #350
All-Time Series: Marquette leads, 9-0

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No, that’s not a typo. Chicago State, a school located in Illinois, a relatively short drive away from Marquette, is in the same conference as Long Island and Central Connecticut. I can’t imagine what might possibly be causing them to have a rough time in league play. Probably not the travel schedule, right?

The most recent meeting with the Cougars was an 82-68 victory in November 2022. MU trailed 24-19 at one point, so let’s hope this meeting goes better than that one.

Wagner Seahawks

2025-26 Record: 14-17, 8-10 NEC
2025-26 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #314
2026-27 BartTorvik.com Projection: #341
All-Time Series: First ever meeting

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Fun connective tissue for you: Former Marquette head coach Mike Deane became the Wagner head coach in 2004 after he got the Lamar job following his exit from Milwaukee. The guy that Wagner hired to replace Deane in 2010? Dan Hurley, getting his first Division 1 job before moving on to Rhode Island and Connecticut.

We’ll have a lot more time to rummage around all of these teams when we get into November. Now that we’ve got the full picture of the non-conference schedule, what stands out to you?

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